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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22806037">I Wanna Sleep Next To You</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fooshi/pseuds/Fooshi'>Fooshi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Cuddling, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route Spoilers, First Kiss, Love Confessions, M/M, Post-Time Skip, Sharing a Bed, rated T for mentions of genocide and violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-29 00:21:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,644</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22806037</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fooshi/pseuds/Fooshi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>As children, Dimitri and Dedue once shared a bedroll on a battlefield. As adults, they still seek out that same comfort from one another.</p>
<p>Spoilers for Blue Lions route.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Dedue Molinaro</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>85</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I Wanna Sleep Next To You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I saw <a href="https://twitter.com/fragili_3on/status/1222198558826225665">this</a> gorgeous piece of art on Twitter and I had to write a fic for it. The title is inspired by the song Talk Me Down by the incomparable Troye Sivan.</p>
<p>This fic takes place after Dedue has returned but before Dimitri has fully come down from his blind quest for revenge. It takes place before their A support as well, hence Dedue calling Dimitri "Your Highness" rather than by his name.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first night after his family was killed, Dedue lay in the same dingy bedroll as the boy who had saved his life. Dimitri. It was the only word Dedue had learned in the tongue of Fódlan. The two dirt stained boys lay there, staring at each other across the silent, empty chasm between them where neither dared touch the other for fear of breaking the unspoken peace that had settled.</p>
<p>All day, the two boys had been inseparable. With nowhere else to go and no idea what else to do, Dedue had followed Dimitri off the battlefield. Adults had tried to pull Dedue away when they saw a child of Duscur trailing after the prince. Each time Dimitri had snarled and barked at them in words Dedue couldn’t comprehend. Whatever he was saying, it was enough to make the adults leave them alone. The two of them drank from the same well, ate from the same loaf of bread. Dedue stood in the medical tent as Dimitri’s back was bandaged. He saw the wounds Dimitri had received in exchange for Dedue’s life. He watched them disappear beneath layers of white cloth.</p>
<p>"Thank you," Dedue said that night in their bedroll, speaking in his own language. He knew Dimitri could not understand, but he said it anyway. He had said it many times that day.</p>
<p>In response, Dimitri reached out his hand and placed it in Dedue's. His grip was firm, too firm, almost painful, but Dedue did not flinch away. He gripped back and he began to cry. This was the first time Dimitri and Dedue ever touched each other. This was the first friendly touch Dedue had felt since his family died.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>Years later, there was a knock on the door of Dedue's room. It was Dedue's first night back at Garreg Mach after five years of pure survival. And now he had returned to his old dorm, as if none of it had ever happened. It felt surreal, like an image stolen from someone else’s life. He had been traveling on his own for so long, yet there was something about being by himself in his dorm that felt impenetrably lonely.</p>
<p>Dedue opened the door.</p>
<p>"May I come in?" Dimitri's voice was strangely formal.</p>
<p>"Of course."</p>
<p>Dimitri looked at Dedue, dressed down in his nightclothes, and frowned. "I'm sorry. I have disturbed you while you were preparing for bed."</p>
<p>“Your Highness hasn’t disturbed me at all.” In fact, Dedue wondered if Dimitri had somehow felt the same subtle magnetism that he had, quietly drawing them together. “What brings you here at such a late hour?”</p>
<p>“I came here with a request, actually,” Dimitri said. “Would you mind terribly if… I would like to spend the night in your bed, like we would when we were children.”</p>
<p>Dedue’s breath caught in his throat. “I do not know if…”</p>
<p>Dedue was about to insist that it wouldn’t be appropriate anymore, not as adults. People would talk if they saw Dimitri leave Dedue’s room the next morning. But then he realized something.</p>
<p>“Still suffering from nightmares?”</p>
<p>Dimitri sighed. </p>
<p>“Always. If I can’t sleep anyway, I thought I might as well keep a vigil by your side,” Dimitri admitted. He paused, then added more quietly, “I need to remind myself that you’re alive. Every time I close my eyes I feel as though you’ve slipped through my fingers, that the vision of you I saw today was nothing but another ghost.”</p>
<p>“I am real, Your Highness. I assure you. I’ve dealt with my fair share of ghosts, and I am not one of them,” Dedue said. “You may stay tonight, for as long as you wish.”</p>
<p>They climbed under the covers together, Dedue first and then Dimitri. Despite the bed’s small size, it still felt as if a vast abyss of space lay between them. Why? Why did Dedue press his back against the wall, making room only for Dimitri to teeter on the opposite edge of the mattress? Why was there still a distance between them? After everything they’d been through, shouldn’t Dedue have been able to close the gap? Long ago, in their academy days, Dimitri had said he wanted to be Dedue’s friend. Did he still feel that way? Even longer ago still, they had lain side by side in bed like this and Dimitri had held his hand. Would Dimitri still…</p>
<p>Dimitri reached out and Dedue’s breath caught. His hand pressed hard into Dedue’s chest, crumpling the fabric of his nightshirt beneath lance-calloused fingers. The firm touch was reassuring. Dimitri never had learned to fully control his strength. That part of him was still the same.</p>
<p>“I can feel your heart beating,” Dimitri said in wonderment. “It’s going very fast.”</p>
<p>Dedue could only nod his response. He knew his heart had sped up the moment Dimitri slipped into his bed.</p>
<p>“I like it,” Dimitri said, more to himself this time. “A vigorous heartbeat. That’s a good sign.”</p>
<p>“I truly am alive, Your Highness. I’ll prove it to you as many times as you like.”</p>
<p>Dimitri’s hand stayed on his chest. Fingertips pulled at the edges of an old scar, but Dedue didn’t mind. It felt good to have Dimitri’s hand on him. It was a reminder that Dimitri was alive as well.</p>
<p>There was a long silence, filled with nothing but Dimitri straining to hear the up-tempo pounding of Dedue’s heart. Then, Dimitri spoke.</p>
<p>“I have so many regrets, Dedue. About so many things. So many things I swore I would make right, if only I could live my life over again.” Dimitri looked up from where his eye was trained on Dedue’s chest and their gazes met. “I had regrets about you. Things I swore I would do if I could relive our academy days. Things I wish I’d said to you.”</p>
<p>“You needn’t worry yourself with wishing things were different for me. All the hardships in my life were beyond your control.”</p>
<p>“Even so, my regrets…” Dimitri’s brow furrowed as he struggled with his words. “I wish I had… Dedue, may I kiss you?” </p>
<p>Dedue felt his jaw drop open ever so slightly, just a small parting of his lips</p>
<p>Dimitri took Dedue’s lack of words as an opportunity to explain himself. “Ever since that morning of my execution, when you took my place, I’ve been replaying our final meeting over and over again in my head. I regretted not kissing you then, when I had the chance. Now that you are here, in the flesh, it feels like a dream. I have the chance, so I must ask, may I kiss you? It needn’t be more than once. It needn’t be at all, if you find the idea abhorrent. It’s a selfish request.”</p>
<p>“I do not,” Dedue said slowly. “Find it abhorrent.”</p>
<p>Dimitri breathed in a soft gasp. “Then I may?”</p>
<p>Dedue wracked his brain, trying to find some reason to say no, despite his own desires. It was improper, wasn’t it? It would ruin Dimitri’s reputation.</p>
<p>But did such trivial matters of reputation matter any longer, in a war where each day could be his last? Besides, alone in this room there was no one to watch them, no one to spread vicious rumors about the prince and his vassal. It was just Dedue wanting Dimitri and Dimitri somehow, miraculously, wanting him back.</p>
<p>“You may.”</p>
<p>Dimitri kept his hand on Dedue’s chest, steadying himself with it. He raised his other hand to cradle Dedue’s cheek. Dedue had not been touched this tenderly in a long time, not since he was a child. Dimitri’s thumb ran over Dedue’s lower lip, catching for a moment on the scar there. Then Dimitri placed his lips where his thumb had been.</p>
<p>They did not remain closed-mouthed and gentle for long. There was too much between them, too much history for this to have been a simple, uncomplicated kiss. Dimitri opened his mouth, just enough to fit Dedue’s bottom lip between his. Dedue opened his mouth, too, and they slid together like puzzle pieces. Dedue could feel Dimitri’s soft tongue slip into his mouth, could feel the reverberations of Dimitri moaning against him. It was a moan of pleasure unlike anything Dedue had ever heard, and he couldn’t believe he was the one to make Dimitri utter it. The hand on his chest fisted itself into the fabric of Dedue’s shirt, tugging him closer. Dedue tasted salt on Dimitri’s lips, felt a smear of wetness across his cheek.</p>
<p>He pulled back. Dimitri was crying.</p>
<p>“My apologies!” Dedue’s face heated at hearing how breathless his voice was. “I’ve done something wrong.”</p>
<p>“No.” Dimitri shook his head. “You are perfect. You are so perfect and I can’t believe you’re here. You deserve much more love than a man like me can give.”</p>
<p>Feeling bold, his skin still warm from Dimitri’s body heat, Dedue said, “I will take whatever love Your Highness cares to give. I will take it gladly and I will take it greedily.”</p>
<p>Dimitri shuddered out a sob. “I have so much left to do. I have so many souls left to avenge. They won’t leave me be until I do. I do not know if I will ever be able to be a proper lover to you.”</p>
<p>“I don’t care,” Dedue said plainly. “I never planned to take a lover. I never planned to be anything more than your shield. I want to be by your side in any way I can.”</p>
<p>“Then be by my side like this.” Dimitri rested his head against Dedue’s chest, ear pressed over his heart.</p>
<p>“Gladly.”</p>
<p>They lay together as close as can be, Dimitri pressed against Dedue from his toes to his crown. And Dedue, emboldened and daring, wrapped his arms around Dimitri and allowed himself to hold him as tightly as he wished.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Please leave Dimidue fic prompts in the comments if you have any! I'm looking to get this writing machine rolling.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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